Geography methodology

As part of this coursework I am going to investigate my hypothesis. ‘The Princesshay development has increased the number of people visiting the CBD.’ The method I’m going to use to investigate my hypothesis is a questionnaire on Pinpoint.  My questionnaire comprised of 5 different questions.

I also carried out a Bus and bicycle count as another of my own methods. The reason for these counts were to establish whether the new Princesshay development has affected the environment of Exeter’s CBD and encouraged people to be more environmentally friendly by using public transport or bicycles.

For one of the teacher-led methods we carried out an environmental quality survey to access the quality of the surrounding areas moving towards and around Princesshay. There were a range of twelve points chosen for these surveys. To complete these surveys I rated five objects including: Quality of buildings, width of pavements, street furniture, the amount and quality of bins and the greenery in the surrounding area.

Another teacher led method was pedestrian counts. This method was completed to recognise how busy different areas of the city centre were at different times. Similarly to the environmental quality surveys twelve sites were chosen and people were counted walking past a certain line for three minutes.

The last of my individual methods is photographs. I have chosen this method to support my other results. My photographs will be able to illustrate the twelve different sites my fieldwork was carried out in and the areas my bicycle and bus counts were completed.

Finally we all carried out a Land use survey (attached). This map shows all the shops and their category e.g. financial services. This will help to illustrate the types of business in and around Exeter’s CBD.

Land use survey

My land use survey shows the use of land in Sidwell Street, Fore Street and The High Street. You can see that the High Street is comprised of mainly high order retailing, banks and catering. Moving out to Sidwell Street there are more flats and public administration. Fore Street is made up of mainly specialised retailing. We can see that there is only one entertainment building which is the Odeon cinema situated on Sidwell Street.

Photographs